23 AmeriCorps Positions Available — Here’s Why You Should Join

AmeriCorps members get things done. Each yearmore than 80,000people serve their communities across the country. Acting as catalysts for community progress, they’re identifying problems and working toward solutions. Now is your chance to lead: CEDAM is recruiting for 23 available AmeriCorps positions in Michigan that begin in late summer 2017.

AmeriCorps, founded in 1994, was billed as a program dedicated to “helping others and meeting critical needs in the community.” CEDAM’s AmeriCorps members do this by supporting anti-poverty programming; from facilitating financial education classes to creating mentorship programs, CEDAM’s AmeriCorps members give back in a variety of ways.

“My AmeriCorps experience was extremely rewarding,” said Gerhardt Schuette, AmeriCorps Member, United Way of Saginaw County. “It’s a great way to give your all to improve your community while developing professional skills simultaneously.”

In addition to the focus on service, CEDAM invests in professional development for the participants as well. We seek to hire individuals from the community in which members serve and prepare them for “Life After AmeriCorps”. Our members come from a range of backgrounds and are at differing stages in their lives. From a young person just out of college to a retiree looking for the next challenge in life, CEDAM provides support and mentors AmeriCorps members to be successful in whatever chapter follows their service.

AmeriCorps member Rene Halberg served at H.O.M.E. of Mackinac County in St. Ignace. Halberg came to the program as a mid-career professional looking to learn more about the nonprofit field. The unique to AmeriCorps aspects of her service year— service projects, professional development opportunities and networking— inspired her to serve two years with the program.

“The trainings have given me the tools I need to succeed with any path I chose in life,” Halberg said. “Tools that gave me the self-confidence I needed so I can continue to give dignity and empathy daily to anyone I encounter no matter where life’s path takes me.”

Halberg left AmeriCorps with many new tools in her toolbox — and is now a business owner in her community.

“Of course there’s the cliché statement of ‘I have grown so much’ or ‘AmeriCorps has prepared me for so and so,’ but really, the most valuable part of serving with people is that it has enhanced who I am,” said Fair. “I realized what type of person I want to be not only moving forward into the professional world, but as a whole.”

Members receive a modest living allowance, $5,885 toward paying back student loans or continuing education, federal loan forbearance, health benefits and child care benefits. To find out more about the opportunity with CEDAM visit americorps.cedamichigan.org/now-hiring.